O Chalé

I've given this a six because we were both effectively creeped out and very impressed with cinematography and the film's immediacy for the front half. The key plot point of why the Dad left his kids in the situation he did wasn't credible but I was willing to go with the premise...up to a point.

I lost confidence in the film's direction when the "mystery" began to be explained. It felt as though the writers decided there HAD to be a violent resolution to the story (and somewhat of a nod to the morbid religiosity that had been pointed to.)

We were a little disgusted with a pat ending after such early promise of something different. I also get tired of films where someone takes it out on an innocent animal to create fear and foreshadow things are going to get really bad for the humans.

I'll get the major cons out of the way first. This movie suffers from the usual problem Hollywood film always seem to have -- no money to afford electricity. Most of the movie is shot entirely in the dark, so goodness knows what happened in those scenes. Also, one or two key bits of dialogue that explain what's really happening are totally lost to mumbling.

However, overall, this film really did improve on second watching. Once you know what the story is, you spot all sorts of little bits of detail that make the whole thing make sense. But more than this, my empathy with Grace, the protagonist and victim, grew exponentially during this second watch. She comes over as an almost wholly sympathetic character. Little things like the carefully wrapped presents she brings and hides make her rather loveable. Her love for her dog and what he represents to her is very moving. She's a very damaged person, but unfortunately for her, she gets entangled with other very damaged people and hell hath no wrath like grieving children.

There's only one jump scare in this movie, but it's a good one. The rest of the film is a more slow psychological horror about the power of grief and early childhood trauma. And human fragility.

I highly recommend this to anyone who likes their horror thought-provoking and real rather than shock-horror jump scares. This clearly borrows from Hereditary: almost shamelessly copies much of the atmostphere of that film with the dark house, the dolls' house, the cult, the dolls, the camera work inside the dolls' house distorting our perceptions.

Pretty good movie with strong performances all round.

I am not surprised at all at the negative reviews. This movie starts well, sets up the story well and then falls flat so hard it's like taking the popcorn out of the oven as soon as one pops - it smells nice, but in reality you're left with only hard, tasteless kernels.

Let's address the elephant in the room. This is NOT an intelligent movie. However, it does have enough pretentious cinematography to make some people think it is. That being said I am a fan of said cinematography AS A SET UP, but not as your entire substance. I have no idea why some people are calling this innovative as it simply isn't. Long drawn out shots of a darkened empty hallway or a window while someone frantically plucks at an untuned violin and radio-filtered whispers is neither ground-breaking not original. Yes, it's uncomfortable so overdoing it will elicit an emotional reaction, which some people mistake for the effect of good writing.

Now, beyond the elephant. The story goes absolutely nowhere. If the movie is original with anything it's that the ending is so mediocre and so little attempt has been made to make it interesting that it's a rarity in the genre. If you know there is no twist ending you can guess the finish a good 15 minutes after the word go. The characters are profoundly unlikable aside from the dad, who appears briefly at the beginning and the end. There is "creepy" scenes which go nowhere and have absolutely no explanation, nor do they contribute to the plot (I am looking at you 100 snow angels).

That being said I do appreciate movies which try to at least get part of the equation right and this one, as stated above, has a good first part. Now, if only movie-makers learned that you need to know how to finish a story too. So, while I wouldn't wholeheartedly recommend it, if you're into eating only the first couple of popcorns of the bunch and being disappointed by the rest, go for it. Just be warned - the moment you start asking yourself "ok so where is this all going" is the moment when you know the movie is well past its peak".

It is meant to be a suspenseful horror film, but the story turns out not scary In fact, the story makes me really angry. It is very cruel, and I have no sympathy for the people who have caused this pain.

The movie started out great, a visual buffet with horror subtlety sprinkled all around promising a visceral ride, the first act left me feeling excited with anticipation of things to come. The last act of the film wasn't bad either, delivering truly horrific anticipation of things to come, but nothing ever really manifested.

In the end, I believe the pace of the film is too slow for such a thin plot. The visual story stops being impressive after the firs act, the second act is way too slow, and the third act left me, and I believe much of the audience feeling rather disappointed with the flick.

In the end, if you're looking for a classic scare, I think the movie is not for you; if however, you enjoy visual story telling, and don't mind a slow pace, then it might be worth a shot.